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For more than two thousand years people have believed that joint pain could be triggered by bad weather, but the link has never been proven.
But now, by harnessing the power of thousands of volunteers, doctors hope to unravel the mystery. And the new technique could offer countless solutions to a whole host of ailments.
[...] Each day she enters information about how she feels into an app on her phone, the phone's GPS pinpoints her location, pulls the latest weather information from the internet, and fires a package of data to a team of researchers.
On its own Becky's data is of limited interest, but she isn't acting alone. More than 13,000 volunteers have signed up for the same study, sending vast quantities of information into a database - more than four million data points so far.
The app, called "Cloudy with a Chance of Pain" is part of a research project being run by Will Dixon. He is a consultant rheumatologist at Salford Royal Hospital and has spent years researching joint pain.
My rheumatism is triggered when the wife asks me to carry heavy, heavy things up to our 3rd-floor walk-up...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by engblom on Wednesday April 19 2017, @11:31AM (9 children)
Many years ago I broke a bone in my left long finger. Exactly there where the bones had been growing back together I felt a pain before rainy weather for a whole year. As the healing progress went forward, the pain became less until I never noticed any pain anymore.
Still during that one year, it never failed. Always with pain came rain (or snow).
I do not know what mechanism is causing the pain before rain, but surely there is a relation between bone injury and weather.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:57PM (8 children)
Ankylosing spondylitis, think seriously bad arthritis, causes moderate to severe joint pain. An interesting side effect is that you learn to live with it, not take things so seriously, and be much happier almost all the time.
In the last decade I began to realize, at first dismissing it, but began to suspect that there was a correlation between overcast days, cold days, and increased pain. One thing that may counter this is that in some years there is also increased pain as the weather fairly suddenly changes to warm or hot days. At first I dismissed this, because it doesn't fit the stereotype. It's easy to notice the instances that fit what you are looking for, and dismiss instances that don't. It's about time someone gets some real data.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by redneckmother on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:16PM (2 children)
When the barometer moves quickly, arthritics feel it - it doesn't matter if it's going up or down.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:02PM (1 child)
Then, why don't they put arthritic people in a barometric chamber for a week, and ask them to record when they think the pressure went up or down?
You can even double-blind that.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:37PM
It has been done [wired.com], though that link only mentions a group of four patients for a study in a barometric chamber (obviously not enough for statistical significance; it's surprising if there have been no follow-ups to that). There have been a number of other studies that have correlated local weather conditions (specifically change in barometric pressure -- usually lowering -- and change in temperature -- usually going down) with pain reports.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday May 01 2017, @09:10PM (4 children)
It's a shitty condition to have and I hope it's being treated adequately.
After ~6 years of being poked and prodded I'm still no closer to finding out why I have widespread, near constant joint pain. Bugger all on blood work, bugger all on x-ray/MR. Initial suggestion was possible connective tissue disorder and that's the best I've come up with in my own reading. The current treatment is opioids and amitripytline, both of which make you drowsy, the former having the added bonus of being pure arse cement. But yes, you have to accept it's there, accept it can and will limit you, but don't let it be the focus of your life; that way is not great for your mental health, in itself a way to make the physical pain feel worse.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 01 2017, @09:43PM (3 children)
Hope you can get a solid diagnosis and treatment.
Yes, I'm being treated well. Prescription NSAIDs. Some other drugs, and narcotic pain killers (opioids) as needed.
It is limiting, yes. But it doesn't stop me from writing code at work or dabbling with PIs, Arduinos, and other fun things on the side at home.
I have a love / hate relationship with HUMIRA. I am on again and off again about taking it. It's a trade off between hurting all the time or being sick all the time. It screws with the immune system making it easy to catch every little sniffle and cough that goes around. And the warnings and possible effects are pretty scary.
As for opioids, I don't use that much. I am offered more than I use and refuse them sometimes. I don't want to get addicted. I don't even want to build up a tolerance. When I use them they really work, and I start with a half-dose which is often enough. The doctor said that being dependent is not the same as addiction with the addictive behavior. Dependency would be no worse than being dependent on other maintenance meds people take all the time to maintain health. Still I would rather not take them except when necessary.
But on that subject, it really bothers me when I hear some new move to limit prescribing opioids. It's bad that people abuse them. But there are people like me who don't abuse them. Used carefully they improve my quality of life. Yes, something should be done. It's sad to see people that will do anything to get their next dose. And even eventually die from it, or combining it with alcohol. I try to avoid ever having a next dose. But some days it is unavoidable.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Tuesday May 02 2017, @05:40PM (2 children)
Glad to hear it's being treated about as well as it can be and that it isn't limiting you too much. I know in the past there was an emphasis on stopping the symptoms without necessarily taking quality of life in to account; you know, "so what if you can only have a crap once a week, your joints are OK aren't they?". Non-steroidals can cause nasty liver/kidney side effects but presumably you're being monitored for that as part of your HUMIRA treatment regime. I know a little bit about HUMIRA as it's also used in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, one of the departments I work in on-and-off; the side effects seem to hit everyone (everyone has an immune system, so that's logical) to a greater or lesser degree and the poor devils who get the worst of it can be very unwell indeed. Of those side effect warnings, I'm sure your doctor has told you that yes, they *can* happen but don't get too hung-up on them; you know what normal is for you and if you don't feel normal, you know to get it checked out.
And I definitely hear you on the opioids. I am hugely lucky in that I'm neither dependent nor addicted, but I can't work without taking them and I'm addicted to having a roof over my head. :)
ISTR reading about people being more likely to become addicted if they delay taking them as the brain can see this as a "reward". My doctor tells me they work more effectively if taken regularly, but I'd rather not take the damn things at all. That said, so long as they're taken responsibly they are, as you say, no worse than anything else. For the people who are addicted there's no easy solution, but if we started treating it as a health issue rather than a criminal issue then we might help more people and ultimately reduce the petty crime that funds their collective habits.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:53PM (1 child)
Yes, I'm being monitored for both the HUMIRA and methotrexate. But I sometimes stop taking HUMIRA for several months at a time. My Dr. is fine with that if I want to find a balance between taking it and not taking it. When I take it, I take it in steady regular doses. It's one of those things that makes me wonder if the cure is worse than the pain, since I've generally learned to live with it mostly without opioids.
I'm glad you also don't have a problem with opioids. I find it amusing the information about taking opioids regularly making addiction less likely. I've been using them for years and years and IMO the best advice is to avoid them generally, and use the minimal effective dose when necessary. I don't want to screw with my ability to hyperfocus. There was one occasion, years ago, where I took 1/2 tablet increments until I reached 2 tablets. I was definitely woozy. And I suddenly realized *why* people get addicted. But I had no interest in repeating that feeling considering the tradeoff. I'm not taking it for fun. I'm taking it when it feels like a wire saw cutting through my bone.
I agree that for the poor addicted people it should be a medical issue rather than a criminal one. Unless, of course, the ensuing criminal behavior cannot be stopped. As long as they can maintain on a steady dose, and hopefully ween off of it, that would seem best in my non expert opinion.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:30PM
I took sulfasalazine for a while - up until my doctor finally listened to my protests that it was doing nothing at all! - and that required monthly blood tests for 12-18 months. As I'm no great fan of being punctured this was not welcome news, but as that stuff was supposed to alleviate the problem I just put up with it. Opioids (in my case 4-6 30/500 co-codamol daily) definitely make me feel a bit slower, less mentally alert, enough that I'd rather not take them at all, but for the moment it's either take them or don't work and I'd rather keep my job, crappy though it is. :)
I'm always surprised at the people who want to lock drug addicts up rather than get them treated, clean and functioning as members of society again. Locking people up is bloody expensive and, ultimately, isn't curing the problem, merely moving it somewhere else for a while. Given the success of countries like Portugal in modifying how they deal with addicts and, ultimately, significantly reducing the problem, it's even more puzzling.